Template:Short description Template:IPA vowels Template:IPA notice A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark vowels because they are perceived as sounding darker than the front vowels.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Near-back vowels are essentially a type of back vowels; no language is known to contrast back and near-back vowels based on backness alone.
The category "back vowel" comprises both raised vowels and retracted vowels.
ArticulationEdit
In their articulation, back vowels do not form a single category, but may be either raised vowels such as {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or retracted vowels such as {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012) "The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"</ref>
Partial listEdit
The back vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close back unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close back protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- near-close back protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close-mid back unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close-mid back protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open-mid back unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open-mid back rounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open back unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open back rounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
There also are back vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA:
- close back compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- near-close back unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- near-close back compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close-mid back compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- mid back unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- mid back rounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
As here, other back vowels can be transcribed with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA for a near-close back rounded vowel.
OccurrenceEdit
According to PHOIBLE, the most common phonemic back vowel is /Template:IPA link/, occurring in approximately 88% of languages, while the most uncommon phonemic back vowel is /Template:IPA link/, occurring in only 2% of recorded inventories.
| Vowel | % |
|---|---|
| /Template:IPA link/ | 88 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 60 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 35 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 14 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 7 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 6 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 4 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 3 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 2 |